Steven
Spielberg - Filmmakers Magazine

Steven Spielberg
Producer|
Director | Screenwriter

Steven
Spielberg, Film Producer, Director, Screenwriter:
Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg is considered to be
one of the most influential film personalities of
our time, Steven Spielberg is perhaps Hollywood's
best known producer / director and the wealthiest by
far filmmaker in the world. Spielberg has generated
a dozen or more highest-grossing, critically
acclaimed film credits to his name, as producer,
director and screenwriter. Steven Allan Spielberg
was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio...

"Before I go off and direct a movie I always look at 4 films.
They tend to be: Seven Samurai, Lawrence of Arabia, It's A Wonderful
Life, and The Searchers."

The death of Buddy Holly has gone down in
history as the day the music died. The recent death of Charles Schultz,
Creator of the Beloved Peanuts comic strip, has been suggested as the day
the laughter died. Fortunately for hundreds of thousands of fans around
the world, January 2000 will not go down as the time visual entertainment
died. There are many however, that will remember it as the time that some
higher authority pressed pause.

It
came as quite a surprise when, on February 7th, 2000, a brief
statement was released by Marvin Levy, spokesman for Steven Spielberg,
saying that an “irregularity” was discovered on Steven Spielberg’s kidney
during a routine exam. Surgery pursued and the kidney was removed,
although Levy declined to clarify whether or not the kidney was cancerous.
Another source close to Steven Spielberg has said that “Steven is fine” and
noted that no follow-up treatment will be needed.

After being denied entrance into traditional
film schools, Steven Spielberg entered
California State University in Long Beach to study English.

Born
in Cincinnati on December 18, 1946, and
raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield New
Jersey and Scottsdale Arizona, Steven Spielberg
always had a love and fascination for the
movie industry. As a pre-teen, he charged
admission to his home movies (which involved
wrecks he staged with his Lionel train set)
while his sister sold popcorn. At the age of
12, his first production was complete,
including script and actors. Just one year
later at the age of 13, Steven Spielberg won a
prize for a 40-minute war movie he titled Escape to Nowhere.
In 1963, at the young age of 16, his
140-minute production of Firelight
(which would later inspire Close
Encounters) was shown in a local movie theater and brought in $100
profit.

After
being denied entrance into traditional film
schools, Steven Spielberg entered California State
University in Long Beach to study English.
Steven Spielberg’s professional movie
career began the day that he decided to jump
off a tour bus at Universal Studios
Hollywood and wander around the back lots.
Apparently he found an abandoned janitors
closet and turned it into an office. After
some time, the security guards had seen him
so often that they would wave him through
the gates, no questions asked. He would
however, dress the part, looking quite
professional in his Bar Mitzvah suit and tie
(not a T-shirt and jeans) so he didn’t
look so much like a kid.

Themovie, Amblin, 24 minutes long,
led to his becoming the youngest director ever to be
signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood
studio.

Once
inside and settled, Steven Spielberg started production on Amblin. This
movie, only 24 minutes long, led to his becoming the youngest director
ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio
(Universal). The movie had a $15,000 budget, provided by a friend whom was
also trying to achieve his big break in the industry. Amblin won
several film festival awards including a showing at the Atlanta Film
Festival in 1969. Steven Spielberg was then signed to a 7-year contract under the
Television division. Just 4 years later, after directing a diversity of TV
shows, he directed the suspense-filled made-for-TV film Duel which
received critical and audience acclaim and was later released into
theaters.

Steven Spielberg
followed up the success of Jaws two years later with his next
film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which received an
academy nomination for best director. Not every Steven Spielberg film has
received acclaim however, as proven by the disastrous failure of the
film 1941, his first attempt at comedy (released in 1979).
This disappointment did not discourage him however, and he next
teamed up with a friend of his named George Lucas. Together,
Steven Spielberg and Lucas adapted an action adventure picture based on
serials they both loved as kids called Raiders of the Lost
Arc. The film earned Steven Spielberg another best director Oscar
nomination.

One
year later (1982), Steven Spielberg’s next film E.T The Extra
Terrestrial became the biggest domestic moneymaker of all time.E.T. was in fact the first movie to be produced by Amblin
Entertainment, a production company formed by Steven Spielberg in 1982
carrying the name of his first big break in the business. Amblin was
only a production studio, and worked together with many other
studios such as Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Warner
Brothers. With the Amblin name and logo prevalent, many films became
immediate successes and American icons, including such films as Twister,
E.T., Back to the future, Gremlins, Jurassic Park, Schindlers List
and Saving Private Ryan.

A
big challenge was presented to Steven Spielberg in 1985. After receiving
much criticism that he couldn’t make a picture with adult content,
he directed the movie The Color Purple.Although Steven Spielberg himself did not receive an Oscar
nomination, the film received 11.

*The
FilmMakers Film Fund
will finance the production of all future film projects. The projects will be
made up of undiscovered Emerging artists in film including: screenwriters,
directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, music composers, first assistant
directors (AD), art directors, costume designers, production managers
(PM), etc.